f his hat and stooped low to enter through the small
side-door. As soon as he had passed the threshold, he stood up to his
height and then made a low bow to Maria Addolorata, whose veil now quite
covered her eyes and prevented her from seeing him,--a fact which he
realized immediately.

"Give warning to the sisters, Sister Filomena," said Maria Addolorata to
the portress, who nodded respectfully and walked away into the gloom
under the arches, leaving the nun and Dalrymple together by the door.

"It is necessary to give warning," she explained, "lest you should meet
any of the sisters unveiled in the corridors, and they should be
scandalized."

Dalrymple again bowed gravely and stood still, his eyes fixed upon Maria
Addolorata's veiled head, but wandering now and then to her heavy but
beautifully shaped white hands, which she held carelessly clasped before
her and holding the end of the great rosary of brown beads which hung
from her side. He thought he had never seen such hands before. They were
high-bred, and yet at the same time there was a strongly material
attraction about them.

He did not know what to say, and as nothing seemed to be expected of
him, he kept silence for some time. At last Maria Addolorata, as though
impatient at the long absence of the portress, tapped the pavement
softly with her sandal slipper, and turned her head in the direction of
the arches as though to listen for approaching footsteps.

"I hope that the abbess is no worse than when Doctor Taddei saw her last
night," observed Dalrymple.

"Her most reverend excellency," answered Maria Addolorata, with a little
emphasis, as though to teach him the proper mode of addressing the
abbess, "is suffering. She has had a bad night."

"I shall hope to be allowed to give some advice to her most reverend
excellency," said Dalrymple, to show that he had understood the hint.

"She will not allow you to see her. But you shall come with me to the
antechamber, and I will speak with her and tell you what she says."

"I shall be greatly obliged, and will do my best to give good advice
without seeing the patient."

Another pause followed, during which neither moved. Then Maria
Addolorata spoke again, further reassured, perhaps, by Dalrymple's quiet
and professional tone. She had too lately left the world to have lost
the habit of making conversation to break an awkward silence. Years of
seclusion, too, instead of making her shy and silent, had given